A difference of definitions

So there’s been quite a flap over the Long Island television “studio” set up by the Senate GOP when they were in the majority, first revealed in a story in the New York Times yesterday.

In a radio interview with 1300-AM talk show host Fred Dicker, Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos said the issue of the studio was overplayed.

Fred Dicker: “What about the claim in the story of these hundreds of unknown employees and a hidden away TV studio on Long Island for the exclusive use of what were then Republican Senators, is there anything to that?”

Senator Skelos: “No Fred, there was a camcorder, a camcorder, that some members could use to do stand-ups.”

The Senate Dems beg to differ. The photo above is a picture of the equipment from Long Island that has now been returned to Media Services here in Albany. And the photo below is of the empty room that was once the “studio.”

In fairness, Senate GOP spokesman John McCardle characterized the equipment more accurately in the Times’ story, but said that calling it a “television studio” was an overstatement. From the story:

John McArdle, a spokesman for Mr. Skelos, said calling it a television studio was an overstatement. Yes, there were cameras, lights and a place to record television segments — usually for cable-access programs — he conceded, but only in a corner of a special regional press office at a state building in Hauppauge.